Answers to media questions about Haiti
by Marguerite Laurent, Esq.
Chair, The Haitian Lawyers Leadership
March 2, 2004

1. Why did the Bush administration consider the removal of Aristide to be a U.S. national interest?

Aristide had eliminated the Haitian army, which traditionally protected the interests of the right wing business elites in Haiti. Their interests are U.S. big business interests. Also, Aristide refused to fully implement Washington's neo-liberal economic policies when he returned to Haiti in 1994. Also, Haiti's cheap labor force, whether actually used or not, can be used as a threat - as leverage - against other labor forces. When the Chinese or Koreans unionize, then all you need is the threat to move to cheaper labor in Haiti to put their demands in check and save millions of dollars. President Aristide had raised, more than doubled the minimum wage in Haiti, not once but twice. The first time in 1995 he raised it from 18 gourdes to 36 gourdes per day for an 8-hour day. And, in 2003 he again doubled the minimum wage from 36 to 70 gourdes (or about $1.60) a day, despite the strong disapproval of Haiti’s business elites and their US contractors. Because of inflation, the $1.60 a day, was lower than what the minimum wage had been 10 years earlier.

[ Under President Jean Bertrand Aristide and the Lavalas governments, the life, liberty and property of the Haitian masses were elevated and more valued than at any other time since the first coup d'etat in 1806 where the sons of France assassinated Haiti’s founding father. For, the minimum wage was raised, more Haitian schools were built in Haiti than in the entire previous 200 years of Haitian history, the people were educated by the Liv Blan as to the resources of Haiti and their right to this property and mineral riches and oil, (See Haiti's Riches being fleece under cover of this UN occupation and puppet Haitian government by foreign companies) Also, under Pres. Aristide, the language of Haitians, the Kreyòl language was made an official language of the Haitian state, Vodun was made an official religion, France was asked to pay back the Independence Debt and literacy rates went up by more than 30%. To take and control Haiti's life, liberty and property are the reasons for the Bush 2004 coup d'etat/UN occupation. The Bush 2004 coup d'etat/Regime change and subsequent UN occupation is based on enslavement (taking of Haitian life and labor), murder (rule by force, incarceration, endless debt and degrading the environment) and theft (stealing the people of Haiti's mineral/gold/copper/ coal/oil/gas reserves and other riches). See, the map from the "Liv Ban" from Pres. Aristide political party which catalogues Haiti's riches. President Aristide’s political party, put together in this “Liv Blan” book a plan of public/private partnership to lift Haiti out of poverty using Haiti's own natural resources - Go to: A map of some of Haiti's mining resources, Oil in Haiti - Economic Reasons for the UN/US occupation, and CKUT Interview (in English - 34:03) with Ezili Dantò on Mining of Haiti Resources and Riches].

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Download LikeHere.mp3 CLICK ABOVE TO HEAR POEM Ezili's Note, 2005: Paying Haitians a paltry (70 gourds) - $1.60 (depending on exchange rates) for an 8-hour day was deemed too much by these repugnant international business folks in Haiti. So, under the pretext that they had the best interests of the Haitian poor at heart and that Aristide was a vile dictator responsible for massive Haitian murders and international crimes, sweatshop kingpin and US citizen Andre Apaid, Jr (Group 184), and other such US-protected business elites in Haiti, gathered together with the Bush-the-Junior's Neocons (with the complicity of the international corporate barons who now own the mainstream media and major "news" outlets) to ouster the Aristide/Neptune government and then imposed their own Boca Raton Prime Minister from Florida. Some of the first acts of this imposed Bush Haiti regime in 2004 were aimed at decimating Haiti's reforms made under President Aristide and implementing a neoliberal economic, otherwise known to Haitians as the "death plan." Under the cover and back-up of thousands of UN guns - who acted as the military proxies for the Washington ruling elites and to disguise the colonial invasions there soley to legitimize the 2004 Bi-centennial coup d’etat in Haiti - Bush's Haiti regime immediately imprisoned, forced into exile or slaughtered all the Lavalas supporters in sight, gave three years tax break to Haiti's business class, dropped the Haitian demand that France pay the $22billion Independence Debt it extorted from the Haitian people at gun point, cut the minimum wage in half, gave ten years back pay to the Haitian army soldiers demobilized by President Aristide back in 1995, signed Haiti to endless new IFM/World bank debts; proceeded to fleece Haiti of its gold mines, uranium, copper, emeralds, gas reserves, its iridium, underwater treasures, et al and to set in motion the wheel for such continued massive "privatization" of Haiti's remaining state enterprises and country's assets. =========================

2. In your opinion, what was the involvement of the United States in the removal of Aristide? (Possibly discuss how the U.S. withheld humanitarian funds and why, etc.)

The U.S. financed the first 1991-1994 coup d'ètat against Aristide. They returned him after three years to stem the flow of Haitian refugees landing in Florida, and incarcerated in the offshore U.S. penal colony known as Guantanamo Bay.

The U.S. continued their destabilization campaign against the Haitian peoples' struggle towards development by forcing Aristide, as a condition of return, to give asylum to the coup leaders and integrate high FADH and FRAPH officials back into the new civilian police. These corrupt people led to more corruption and made it even more unwieldy for Aristide to clean up past corruption or develop a Haitian justice apparatus to crack down on corruption and bring people to justice.

Then the U.S. promptly began to try to turn the new innocent police recruits against Aristide. The U.S. rep running the center quit because of the interference. The U.S. did not want eliminated the old Haitian army it held under its thumb to do its bidding.

Guy Philippe, for instance, trained by the U.S. Special Forces in 1994 in Equador, was put in, by Aristide, as chief of police of the North at U.S. insistence. Guy Philippe later led three coup attempts. The first one against the Preval administration and two, one in 2000 and the other in 2001, against Aristide. Many people died. The U.S. is also implicated in these previous Guy Philippe attempts.

The fact that Guy Philippe could not have freely entered Port-au-Prince in February, 2004, despite the opposition, without the U.S. Marines first removing Aristide is testament to Aristide's popularity and solidarity with the Haitian people.

The U.S. conducted the coup d'ètat against Aristide on Feb. 29, 2004, themselves. Louis Jodel Chamblain and Jean Tatoune, both of FRAPH, and part of what CNN calls a "rebel force," are convicted of massacres during the first (1991-1994) CIA-sponsored coup d'ètat against President Aristide. The U.S. played a pivotal role in helping Louis Jodel Chamblain flee Haiti and get asylum in the Dominican Republic. All three - Chamblain, Tatoune and Guy Philippe - are CIA assets who refused, like Toto Constant, to be subject to Haitian criminal laws and its courts of justice and got away with this because of their U.S. intelligence and diplomatic connections.

Nine hundred (900) U.S. soldiers patrol the Dominican Republic with the Dominican Guard. Yet, on Feb. 5, 2004, convicted murderers Chamblain and Philippe managed to cross the border into Haiti with U.S. weaponry such as M16s, M60s, armored vehicles, grenade launchers, etc.

The United States DEA charged Guy Philippe as a drug trafficker. Today he walks side by side with U.S. Marines in Port-au-Prince while the constitutionally elected Haitian president is flown out of Port-au-Prince under heavy U.S. coercion, if not outright gunpoint by U.S Marines.

Toto Constant, FRAPH founder, to whom the U.S. gave asylum in Queens, N.Y., while indefinitely detaining his Haitian victims on Guantanamo Bay and other INS holding pens, is now reportedly back in Haiti.*(See update, Aug. 2007)

Guy Philippe and his gang's first order of business after they were escorted into Port-au-Prince by U.S. soldiers was to "liberate" 2,000 prisoners - murderers and felons - in the Haitian National Penitentiary, including Proper Avril, and unleash them onto Haitian society.

Today, the disinformation about Aristide's lack of popularity and lies about Haiti being more corrupt under Aristide/Preval/Aristide then under the old Duvalierist guard, which is now back, is fairly visible, and in graphic, bloody technicolor. But it's too late. All the small successes of Haitian democracy since 1990 have been trashed in one fell Feb. 29, 2004, U.S. coup d'ètat swoop.

Aristide built more schools in Haiti during his term than had been built in the entirety of Haiti's history under the old guard. Now that old guard is retaking power thanks to 10 years of U.S. destabilization, then outright coup d'ètat. They could not have won without the Feb. 29 shock and awe, dead-of-night campaign, against Aristide and his innocent wife.

Who is keeping the marginal flame and movement towards structural peace alive now in Haiti? Aristide eliminated the old army, helped bring illiteracy from 85 percent down to 48 percent, improved the health system, built public parks, started to decentralize power by establishing local governance through town meetings and local town governance, more so than any of the old guard for the almost 200 years it was in charge.

This done despite the U.S. embargo, obstructions and extortion, which forced Aristide to pay the IMF/World Bank $30 million in loan interest due from old dictatorship governments. Loans that were never requested back from the Duvaliers, who are now in golden parachute retirement on the Riviera, or Raoul Cedras, now in Panama, or Guy Philippe, the real beneficiaries of U.S. aid in Haiti. In addition, the old army was not demilitarized and was shadowing Aristide's every move.

The Haitian people's daily struggles were made even harder by the U.S. financing of opposition groups to Aristide who relentlessly challenged his legitimacy and exercised, with the help of the IRI, USAID, NED, the U.S. Embassy, OAS and the European Union, a virtual de facto veto of any legitimate Haitian government policies, plans and reforms.

Most notably, they blocked every effort to hold parliamentary elections, even though this tiny opposition, according to COHA and U.S.'s own polling, make up less than 4 percent of the Haitian electorate.

Despite all this, President Aristide was able to keep his popular support, so his opponents simultaneously ran a media disinformation campaign fabricating that Aristide had lost popular support and that those who supported him where "thugs." That is equivalent to saying that a little less than 8.5 million Black people are thugs.

The Haitian people have been brutalized, beaten and devastated by U.S. power for a century, beginning in 1914 when the U.S took over from the French, by "helping" to refinance "for Haiti" the 1825 French indemnity, and then invaded Haiti for missing payments to protect U.S. bank interests, fleecing dry the Haitian national gold reserves. France, of course, is helping the U.S. to depose Aristide because he has requested their repayment of $22 billion.

3. What type of relationship do you believe exists between the Democratic Platform and the rebel army?

There is nothing "democratic" about the old guard. They are oppressors, who practice social exclusion and apartheid akin to the KKK. They simply refused to be subject to paying taxes or put under any Haitian law. Group 184 was created in a meeting in the Dominican Republic, which gives shelter, arms and training camps to ex-Haitian soldiers and FRAPH murderers. Guy Philippe has said publicly, the Haitian business elite financially supports him.

4. How involved do you believe Aristide was in the various pro-Aristide groups that used violence against Haitian opposition groups, such as the chimeres, etc.?

Haiti was not demilitarized when Aristide returned in 1994. Old enemies of the people were allowed to keep their guns and have a space in Aristide's government. It was impossible then for Aristide to tell certain Lavalas opportunists to put down their guns when FRAPH/FADH were still armed. Then, the jostling for turf just went underground but was nonetheless alive and well.

Aristide tried to negotiate some of these people out of Haiti and some into harmless position. The corruption continued. Besides, corruption was endemic before Aristide took over leadership.

No democracy in the world does not have corruption in it - as we well know in the U.S. But Aristide's problems where exacerbated, since the Haitian people didn't have a justice system capable of holding powerful or monied prisoners.

Amiot Metayer, for instance, a Lavalas hero, was eventually put in jail. But he broke out and resented the punishment and turned, joining Jean Tatoune, convicted of a massacre in Amiot Metayer's own Gonaive and further complicated the government's crackdown. Butler and Amiot Metayer were always playing off both sides and were simply mercenaries.

Aristide cannot be blamed for people's criminal predilections. For no one who is a real revolutionary for Haitian justice and empowerment would EVER throw their lot in with murderers like Guy Philippe, Jean Tatoune, Louis Jodel Chamblain, or the old Duvalierist guards. Period, no question marks.

All this slaughtering happening in Haiti today could have been prevented if the U.S. had really wanted to help democracy back in 1994 and given the Haitian people the police help President Aristide asked for to demilitarize the whole of Haiti, and if the U.S. had just supported, or simply had not obstructed the constitutionally elected president and Haitian governments. Now the old guard with the U.S. guns has won the fight that's always been going on.

The people are back in hiding. Democracy is dead in Haiti, flown out when the U.S. took away Haiti's peacekeeper. To date, President Aristide has survived 14 assassination attempts. Today, because of U.S./Euro control in Haiti with their FRAPH/FAHD enforcers and because of their neo-colonialist, pre-emptive regime-change policymakers and diplomats throughout the world, President Aristide's safety as well as the safety of the majority of Haitian people, both in the U.S. and in Haiti, are right now in serious jeopardy.

Email Marguerite Laurent at erzilidanto@aol.com.
***

 

The BP Oil Spill’s Toll On Gulf Coast Wildlife: ‘All Bets Are Off’

Orange-colored oil from the April 22 BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico has reached Louisiana’s fragile Chandeleur Islands, which are part of the Breton National Wildlife Refuge, an area that officials have now closed so that nesting sea birds will be undisturbed and to “allow cleanup operations continue uninhibited.” Environmentalists are increasingly worried about the toll the spill will take on more than 400 species in this rich nursery area. As Nancy Rabalais, a scientist who heads the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, said, “The magnitude and the potential for ecological damage is probably more great than anything we’ve ever seen in the Gulf of Mexico.”

ThinkProgress’ Brad Johnson was blogging from the Gulf Coast and spoke with Gulf Coast marine scientists who all agreed that the “unfolding oil disaster could mean devastation beyond human comprehension” and “all bets are off.” Ichthyologist Bruce Comyns, a research scientist at the University of Southern Mississippi’s Gulf Coast Research Laboratory elaborated on the devastating impact the spill may have on the region:

This is “the worst time” of year that this disaster could have begun, Dr. Comyns said, as this is the peak of the spawning and nesting season for marine wildlife in the Gulf, from fish to turtles to dolphins. As he has done in previous years, Dr. Comyns was planning to head out into the Gulf of Mexico to sample larval fishes from the edges of the Loop Current — a research trip that now has newly critical and disturbing import.

A look at what is happening to animals in the Gulf region, and the potential for more disaster:

BIRDS: “I can’t imagine we’re not going to have some mass casualties” among birds in the Gulf region, predicted Michael Parr of the American Bird Conservancy. What makes the timing especially bad is that many of the birds converging on area are “preparing to raise their young in nests in the marsh and along sandy beaches.” Birds — which are often the first to feel the effects of an environmental disaster — are already turning up either dead or covered in oil.

 

 

SEA TURTLES: At least 38 endangered sea turtles “have washed up dead on beaches along the Gulf of Mexico,” although it’s unclear if their deaths were related to the oil spill. Nevertheless, turtles are still at risk from the spill, as they come ashore to lay their eggs. Last week, Johnson told ThinkProgress that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had forbidden the media from observing the sea turtle necropsies at the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Gulfport, MS.

 

 

Watch the National Wildlife Foundation’s video of a baby sea turtle that has been stained orange, struggle in the oily sea:

 

 

FISH: On Sunday, federal officials “shut down fishing for at least 10 days from the Mississippi River to the Florida Panhandle” because of the oil spill, and people in the seafood industry are worried what will happen to their supply. Comyns told Johnson that he found blue fin tuna larvae “right in the vicinity” of the oil rig’s discharge. Even the dispersant BP is using — Corexit 9500 — has a “toxicity to early life stages of fish, crustaceans and mollusks” four times greater than petroleum.

 

 

OTHER MARINE LIFE: Because the spill happened at such a deep level, this oil is “heavier and thicker than the crude spilled in past,” creating an emulsion that is highly toxic to lifeforms. Small organisms such as clams, tubeworms, plankton, sand crabs, and shrimp — which are often sources of food for other organisms such as fish, whales, and otters — are also at risk. Yesterday, an AP journalist reported seeing “hundreds of dead jellyfish” west of the mouth of the Mississippi River.

 

 

Update The Washington Post reports today, "The slick now is larger than Maryland. Officials shut down additional fishing grounds, effectively putting out of work hundreds more in an industry that is the lifeblood of the region, as well as the Breton National Wildlife Sanctuary. Out in the gulf, birds dove into oily water, dolphins coughed and sharks swam in weird patterns, said marine specialists who have been out on the water tracking the disaster."

>via: http://vodpod.com/watch/3548743-examination-of-dead-sea-turtles-after-bps-gulf-oil-spill-under-gag-order

Watch Idris Elba Unleash Half-Mad Cop In New BBC Crime Drama, Luther

May 5, 2010 by M. Gosho Oakes  
Filed under TV

9 Comments

Booker Prize nominated British writer Neil Cross (long listed for his 2004 novel Always The Sun, also the lead writer for the BBC TV series Spooks) penned the new crime drama series everyone’s talking about over here: Luther, starring British actor and ‘heartthrob’ Idris Elba as Detective Chief Inspector John Luther.

Episode one kicked off on BBC 1 yesterday, which I’m still digesting to an extent – but I have a feeling I’m going to love this show by the time the second one airs. I’m kinda slow adjusting to watching a familiar actor in new role… However, from what I’ve seen so far, I think he conveys emotion well in this role; it actually made for uncomfortable viewing at times. Which in this case, is a good thing.

[For our international readers in particular, I found a stream online you can all watch - if that's what you're here for, scroll straight to the bottom of this post and press play...]

For anyone curious – and I found this vaguely interesting – show creator Neil Cross currently has a piece on the BBC site explaining the concept of the show and the highlights of making it all come together. Excerpts:

On casting Idris Elba:

“A particular high point has to be casting Idris Elba,” he writes. “We wanted the show to be special, so when it came to casting our leading man we’d decided to be ambitious, to set the bar high, thinking: don’t ask, don’t get… Idris was on the list… because Idris is pretty much on everyone’s list. But his name was waaaaaay up there, up above the cloud line. So when I got the phone call saying we’d got him – that was a good moment; as good as these moments get, I think.”

On being influenced by Columbo:

“I grew up loving Columbo, and still love it. But Columbo’s format – the ‘howcatchem’, or inverted detective story – wasn’t really played to accentuate the drama. Lieutenant Columbo was rarely at any personal risk (because that’s not we wanted to see) and we knew he’d always get his killer in the end. What we didn’t know was how – which played a big part in making that show so incomparably satisfying.

“The inverted detective story format hadn’t really been revisited since Columbo ended, not that I know of anyway. So I thought it might be exciting to portray it as a kind of psychological duel between this driven, half-mad cop and the depraved criminals he hunts. So we know who Luther has to catch. What we don’t know is how on earth he’s going to do it.”

Read Neil Cross’ full introductory piece over at the BBC.

UK viewers can watch the first episode of Luther on BBC iPlayer.

Everyone else, press play…

Poetry Contest for Emerging Poetse

$1,000 and publication in Boulevard awarded for the winning group of three poems by a poet who has not yet published a book of poetry with a nationally distributed press.

RULES

The poems may be a sequence or unrelated.  All entries must be postmarked by June 1, 2010.  Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but previously accepted or published work is ineligible.  Entries will be judged by the editors of Boulevard magazine.  No one editorially or financially affiliated with Boulevard can enter the contest.  Send typed manuscript(s) and SAS postcard for acknowledgment of receipt to:  Boulevard Emerging Poets Contest, PMB 325, 6614 Clayton Road, Richmond Heights, MO 63117.  No manuscripts will be returned.

Entry fee is $15 per group of three poems, and $15 for each additional group of three poems.  Entry fee includes a one-year subscription to Boulevard (one per author).  Make check payable to Boulevard.

Author's name, address, and telephone number, in addition to the titles of the three poems, should appear on page one of your first poem.  Please also include a 3 x 5 inch index card with your name, address, telephone number and the titles of your poems.

The winning poems will be published in the Fall 2010 or Spring 2011 issue of Boulevard.

All entries will be considered for publication and for payment at our regular rates.

These are the complete guidelines.

Welcome to The Welsh Poetry Competition website.

The 2010 contest was launched on 1st January 2010 at the Llanover Arms, Pontypridd. We have launched this years' competition 2 months early due to popular demand and requests from previous & new entrants and so our much awaited fourth international poetry competition (how time flies) is now open to one and all and accepting entries!

Such was the success of the previous three years' contests that this year we can offer the following prizes:

1st Prize - £300

2nd Prize - £150

3rd Prize - £75

The closing date for the 2010 competition is: Sunday, 30th May 2010.

To enter click here, to read about our judge click here, to read our rules click here and to see last years' winners and a full list of results from the 2009 competition click here.

Enter Online via PayPal - click here.

Once again we should say that the competition is funded purely by the organisers and we receive no grants or funding from any external agencies whatsoever. So the London Olympics don't really effect us then!!!

If any libraries, writing groups, schools, universities, arts organisations, poetry workshops, bookshops, art galleries, councils etc. would like more information please let us know. You can email us or write to us at the usual address. We are more than happy to post out entry forms to you. Also feel free to download copies yourself as it saves us money and more money goes to prizes next year.

Thank you

www.welshpoetry.co.uk

To join our Facebook Group* and post your poems for the world to see and judge, or just chat about poetry or the competition click here.

*Note: You will need your own Facebook account to join in.

1st Place Winner Receives $500 and a $2,500 Publishing Package from CreateSpace.

Enter a writing competition to see who can craft the most compelling start to a novel. Whether you write Romance, Science Fiction, Romance, Non-fiction, or some other genre, the only criteria is that you write a start that will keep us reading.

• Over $3,300 in Prizes and Awards.

• Receive feedback on everything you post to help you prepare your novel for publication.
• Winners are featured and announced in an email to over 30,000 writers, readers, publishers, and more.
• Meet other writers, share tricks, and join the most advanced writing workshop on the planet.

New this year: Category Competitions for Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Romance, Memoir, and More.

Contest submission deadline: June 8, 2010.

Submit Your Manuscript

May 5, 2010

Tweet This: The Caribbean Review of Books is Back!

For those book lovers who used to wait anxiously for the footsteps of the mail carrier to deliver the latest issue of The Caribbean Review of Books, those days are over! The Caribbean Review of Books, edited by Nicholas Laughlin, is back in a new style and fashion. The CRB has changed its format and is now online with a promise of “the same intelligent, incisive coverage of Caribbean literature, art, and culture.”

In Note to the Reader, Laughlin acknowledges some of the difficulties of publishing in the Caribbean, yet his statement regarding the previous incarnation of the CRB is worth quoting in its entirety:

When we revived the CRB in May 2004, it was with the conviction that “a periodical devoted to discussing Caribbean books and writing is a vital necessity.” It is necessary for writers, publishers, and readers, and practical matters of spreading the word about new books. But we also believe a magazine like the CRB plays a necessary role in instigating a wider conversation about literature and art and their relations with Caribbean society — which is also a debate about how to understand the Caribbean’s past, define its present, and imagine its future.

From the current issue:

Curating memory
Brendan de Caires on Exhibiting Slavery: The Caribbean Postmodern Novel as Museum, by Vivian Nun Halloran

Arrival poems
F.S.J. Ledgister on Picasso, I Want My Face Back, by Grace Nichols

Greener pastures
Lisa Allen-Agostini on Who’s Your Daddy? And Other Stories, by Geoffrey Philp

NOTEBOOK
Questions of approach
Vahni Capildeo begins her first visit to India. The first installment in a longer essay about the writer’s trip to Delhi and Mumbai.

There are those who still cower in the face of globalization and still yearn for the Luddite vision of a time that has long gone. Globalization in the form of the internet is here to stay. And if publications intend to survive in the era of Gutenberg 2.0, when every relationship in publishing is up for grabs, they will have to change their business model. In a region known for adaptability—we created music from ole pan—the new and improved CRB offers us a glimpse of the remarkable results that can happen when passion is wedded to fierce intelligence.

Black Cab Sessions. Chapter Twenty-Eight: Benjamin Zephaniah (via JustSoFilms)